Interesting headline, isn’t it? Why would anyone volunteer to write about this (your newspaper doesn’t)? When we were children we all learned that you can’t put a price tag on a single human life. It’s unethical and also violates the dignity of humans. Sure, that’s one way to look at it. When studying the fine print of my health\u00a0insurance I’ve learned that other people have since stepped up to the task and actually\u00a0put a price tag on\u00a0my\u00a0life. Mine is currently 2 million dollars. That’s the accumulated life\u00a0benefit limit on my insurance. So after that you’re pretty much on your own – (get ready to die, no-body’s paying for you here any more). So after the initial shock, that some company has defined how much my life is worth, I thought who else might be inclined to put a value on human life. Turns out companies do it all the time (don’t they have a conscience?) – i.e. car companies that need to determine if they need to have a recall (number of cars with this problem * probability of failure * cost for lost life >=? cost for recall). Insurance companies do it (you carry life insurance, don’t you?). So in business it’s quite common to put a $$$ amount on a human life. Which leads me to the following thought: yesterday there was a suicidal man with a gun at the intersection of two of Austin’s most traveled highways, threatening to kill himself. After a two-hour stand-off with the Austin police the person was taken into custody unharmed. Meanwhile traffic came to a grinding standstill for those two hours. So can I now calculate the loss in\u00a0GDP contribution\u00a0from the created traffic jam and compare that with the value of the person’s life? Should the police use this to decide when to intervene or walk away? Police over megaphone: “You’ve 12min left to drop the gun. After that\u00a0it’s cheaper to kill yourself!” …\u00a0You obviously don’t want the police to pull the trigger. (Although it would be with the consent of the victim (but you would want to get that in writing)\u00a0and it would make economic sense.) What a mess.<\/p>\n
P.S.: Then imagine the next day – “we’re sorry to admit that we\u00a0miscalculated the loss of GDP by assuming that all 3 highway lanes were open, when in fact one was closed. The victim would have had another 23 minutes. Our regrets go to the family.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Interesting headline, isn’t it? Why would anyone volunteer to write about this (your newspaper doesn’t)? When we were children we all learned that you can’t put a price tag on a single human life. It’s unethical and also violates the dignity of humans. Sure, that’s one way to look at it. When studying the fine … Continue reading The monetary value of human life<\/span>